Transcript of the Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable, December 6, 2012

Topic: Tell Santa: What Simulation Do YOU Want in STEM, the Arts, Humanities or Social Sciences?

Photos by Grizzla.Please join our VWER groups at Flickr and Koinup to add your own pictures!
Iggy: Hello everyone and welcome to the Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable! Our topic today is “Tell Santa: What Simulation Do YOU Want in STEM, the Arts, Humanities, or Social Sciences?”

Iggy: This is a public meeting in TEXT CHAT, so we will be keeping and publishing a transcript of what is said. If you’ve not seen our transcripts, you should check them out – they are an excellent information asset.

Iggy: I’m Joe Essid, Writing Center Director at the University of Richmond. Last year I used an immersive literary build based on Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher” in Jokaydia Grid with my literature students. You’ll find a version in SL too,

Iggy: Thanks to the goodwill of Kali Pizzaro and Glasgow Caledonian University, I’ll use that build next semester for a first-year class!

Iggy: A bit about this group, if you are new to VWER:

Iggy: The VWER meets each Thursday at 11:30am SLT for an hour and is a forum to educate and inform the community about issues that are important and relevant to education.

Iggy: Our group has met every week for over three years and we get a wide variety of educators, from seasoned veterans to the newly rezzed.

Iggy: The transcripts can be found at our newly updated web site – vwer.org

Iggy: You can also find and post pictures to our Flickr and Koinup groups and follow us on Twitter @VWER. When you blog or tweet, please remember to include the tag #vwer

Iggy: Now, let’s begin as we always do, and introduce ourselves.

Iggy: Don’t be shy–type away

Zotarah Shepherd: I am working on an MA in Education Technology at Sonoma State University in northern California. I finished all my classes. My Thesis project: Teaching and Learning Life Awareness & Success Skills in Virtual Worlds.

Grizzla: I do think we need to keep looking at ed builds that take the best advantage of what you can do virtually, that you couldn’t do IRL. So wall displays… still can be useful, but don’t need a VW in order to have them

Zotarah Shepherd: I would like to see Open Sims that can be used by all schools for their classes. It would save expenses and promote collaboration in education.

Tori Landau: BURN2 is actually having more events, including on Sat 15th Dec, so hope that is a good sign

Iggy: That is, Tori! I’d like to see more gallery shows of the sort I went to in 2008-9

Kali Pizzaro: yes I saw that seems to still be a lot of arts projects/builds on the go

Iggy: but maybe that is me

Annie Obscure: Santa can bring me vehicles in OpenSim

Iggy: and not SL

Iggy: SOOOOOO since Kali asked: what about simulations in Health?

Kali Pizzaro: I would like to see more people create interactive virtual anatomy and interactive health information simulations – these can and have made a difference to peoples health in the VW and the physical world

Iggy: I’d like a body-mass simulation. Avatar eats and does not exercise, and puts on weight

Kali Pizzaro: (findings of my PhD)

Claudia13 Rossini: eyes Iggy

Kali Pizzaro: so far

Zotarah Shepherd: My sim wishes do not really fit the parameters of those subjects but….

Zotarah Shepherd: I would like to set out or rebuild my Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences build again somewhere. Also other concept builds like Jackie Rexen’s Maslows Needs Build and Thursday Xu’s Bloom’s Taxonomy build.

Kali Pizzaro: mmm blooms

Tori Landau: Imperial college london if still about, a friend of mine worked on it.

Kali Pizzaro: yes it is, but not enough interaction i think

Kali Pizzaro: health builds often need people

Kali Pizzaro: or ways to ask or confirm

David Stack (richmedia): In southeast WI there is an interinstitutional project

Zotarah Shepherd: I would like to find ways of making builds more interactive.

David Stack (richmedia): that has been granted $100K for developing patient avatars